Unpopular' Is The New 'Cool'
by ThisShipShallSail
Summary: Percy, Nico, Annabeth and Leo get the chance to go from invisible to perfect, but will it change them, and will they get separated? Read and find out C: Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a short story I'm doing because I had an idea, they're mortal and sixteen/seventeen, in school. I don't own Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan does. Enjoy, R&R C:**

_Chapter One – Percy's POV:_

I'm unpopular, I know that. I'm not an idiot. I try to make myself look horrible, I wear dull contacts and always wear a dark hood, and cheap clothes. Nothing to bring attention to myself, of course. My mum **(A/N: Sorry I'm English lol deal with it)** doesn't know this, of course. She'd be horrified. She'd give me the 'you don't have to hide who you are' speech, which wouldn't benefit at all.

I have friends, just as unpopular as me, which is good. I don't like popular. There's Annabeth, who has boring green eyes, and hair that she keeps constricted in a tight ballerina bun. She also wears dark clothes, cheap and boring. Nico is the most emo of all of us, with his heavy black hair hanging over his dark eyes, and he gives off the feeling of death. His hood is never off of his head, and he rarely wears anything but his black skinny jeans. Lastly, there's Leo. He has a grin that could light up the room, but it never appears any more. His hair is messy and he tries as hard as he can to make himself unattractive and unnoticeable. Old Leo is gone, as is old Annabeth, old Nico and old Percy.

We walk the school halls in silence, looking at our feet, as we always do, until I get dragged to the side. Without looking up, a hundred thoughts race through my head. Is it Luke again? Are my friends safe? Are his bullying friends with him? How much torture am I in for? Eventually, I look up to see..._Silena?_ The school's Queen Bitch? Huh, plot twist.

"What?" I hiss at her, knowing she can't hurt me. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that my friends have appeared next to me. She examined us all, avoiding my question. "I've researched you, all of you. You intrigue me," Silena shows sincere interest. I narrow my eyes – is this some kind of trick? "Great, a stalker," Leo mutters, and Silena chuckles at him. "Would you let me give you a make over? Listen, you're unpopular, but you all have the personality and looks to be popular. Not in Luke's group, in your own group. Imagine marching into school one day looking super hot, but not accepting anyone's offer to join their group – you'll be your own group!" She is practically jumping up and down in anticipation. "Annabeth?" I turn to her, she's our lie detector. "She's telling the truth," Annabeth murmurs thoughtfully. Silena smirked.

"Tempting," I point out, and everyone else agrees. "Why would you be helping us?" I ask curiously. "Being I'm sick of them. I'm sick of Piper and Reyna and Drew and all of those bitches. I was hoping- well, if I could join that group," She looks at her feet sheepishly, and we all blink at her, stunned. "Deal," Annabeth seals it off before Leo or I can protest. She looks up, eyes shining. "Annabeth, are you free tomorrow? It's the weekend. And I'll spend the day after on you boys," She smiles. We all agree, and one by one, we return to the school hallways. I smirk, knowing what will happen in the days to come.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two – Annabeth's POV:_

*One day later*

Long story short, Silena bought me new clothes, new makeup, and effectively a new life. I admit, I'm a little excited, but also intimidated...I have hated the popular people forever, and now I'm going to become one of them? Will this be a good thing? Guess there's only one way to find out.

I stare into the mirror at myself. My golden curls are around my shoulders and my eyes are grey, instead of the contacts I use. I'm wearing a long sleeved school shirt, with a soft grey jumper on top, but the shirt is un-tucked and it looks kinda preppy. Skinny jeans give it that rebellious look, as well as short heels. For makeup, it's natural and soft. Simply, I have white eye shadow and mascara on, as well as clear gloss for my lips. Overall, not too bad. Definitely not ugly, but I don't think it's enough to be popular.

"Here," Silena hands me some owl earrings, and I put them on. There, that's more of the nerdy Annabeth that I truly am. I'm satisfied now. I would never have thought that one day I would voluntarily hug Silena – but I am. She beams at me, over the moon. "Thank you," I mean it. She smiles at me warmly and I leave, heading home.

In the car, I think. I think about me, I think about my life. My friends, and my family. Who am I really to them? A shadow? Most of the time, Nico is the only one I can trust. I feel defeated, and he does too. It's a good friendship, just comforting each other.

I arrive home, and walk through the door. Usually, I would slip upstairs quietly, and nobody would notice me, but the heels made a noise on the floor. "Who's there?" I hear my step-mother ask worriedly. "Just me," I sigh. She appears, tense and looking terrified. "Drop your weapons," She demands. "What? It's me, Annabeth!" Does she really not recognise me? To my surprise, there are tears rolling down her cheeks. "I- I have a knife. Leave," She says, firm. "I'm your daugh-" I begin, but she shocks me. "Bullshit!" She shouts. "Out. Leave. _Go_," She orders. I leave, confused, angry, and annoyed. She didn't recognise me. Has she even seen my face before? Does she even know how old I am? What my name is?

I stumble out of the house and go to my local park, as it's the only place I can think of. I get my phone and call Nico. "Can I come over?" I ask, and I think he notices how broken my voice is. I head over there and we go to his room. We're just friends, plus he's gay, so no worries. He pulls me onto his lap, and I sit there for a while, sobbing. Nobody cares about me, this was just a mistake. "I care about you," Nico murmured, as if he read my mind.

"Can I have a distraction?" I whisper. "Whatever you need," Nico assures me. Slowly, I lean in, and kiss him slowly. At first, he doesn't respond, until he realises that he's the distraction. This means nothing. We'll forget it when it's done – it means nothing.

But for now, my lips move perfectly in sync with his, and his lips are smooth. He kisses my neck, and my hands play with his hair. I lift his chin up and we're kissing again, my hands sliding down to his neck, and his on my waist. I gasp for breath, and the distraction provided well. I forgot what was the matter for those few valuable minutes. He pulls me back onto his lap again, and I mutter a 'thank you' before drifting off to sleep, his shoulder for a pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three – Percy's POV:_

"You ready?" I ask Nico, as we stare at Silena, texting and waiting for us at the shops. "As ready as I'll ever be," Nico bites his lip – it's cute. Not that I'm gay, I just...Well, he's my man crush, okay? Don't judge me. I'm sure you have a man crush...Or a woman crush...Moving on.

"There you guys are!" Silena squeals as we walk over, and I hold back from rolling my eyes. She is helping us, after all – however, Nico isn't as nice. She doesn't seem fazed, though. Finally, after endless rows of clothes and hair cream, we both look pretty good. Nico is sticking with the emo theme, just because he _is _emo. Still, he looks pretty hot. His black hair hangs over his eyes, as before, but it's more unpredictable and scruffy, but in a good way. He dyed parts of his fringe a greeny-bluey colour, making it look AWEOSME. He wears his black skinny jeans from before – he couldn't bear to wear anything else – and a hoodie. Basically, he looks the same, other than the hair and his new ear and septum piercing.

I look completely different, though. My contacts got thrown in the bin to reveal sea-green eyes, sparkling in excitement. My hood came off and so revealed a black mess of hair, but Silena assured me that it looks cute, so who am I to argue with her. I have skinny jeans with a leather jacket and a white t-shirt advertising Green Day. My converse are black. Look completed.

"You guys look hot!" Silena grinned, bouncing around the room. (Okay, maybe not literally, but you know what I mean.) Nico and I share a look, and we both start laughing hysterically. Silena watches us bend over from laughing too much in confusement, which of course makes us laugh even more. "What?" She asks moodily, crossing her arms. I wipe the tears from my eyes and shake my head, trying to stop the laughter – and failing.

The laughter does die down, and we leave Silena and hang out at the park for a little bit. "Man, where were you last night? I kept calling you," I ask him when we were alone. "Home, sorry," He replies, but I'm still suspicious. His phone is never on silence. "Were you...?" I make a slicing motion on my skin. He shakes his head, dismissing my suspicions. "Oh, then what were you doing?" I ask. "Annabeth was over," He sighs. "I was distracting her," He grins. I raise my eyebrows, until I get it. I grin cheesily. "Did you...Get up to anything?" I ask, trying not to burst out laughter. "Dude, no. We just kissed, really, it's nothing," He's now a bright red colour, which does not go well with his complexion.

"Well, we both look good enough for Monday, I can't wait to see Annie," I say, wondering how she'll look. "Oh, she looks great, trust me. Kissing her was almost easy," Nico jokes, and we both laugh. I haven't laughed this much in years – I guess Silena has that effect on me.

"I'm nervous," Nico admit, biting his lip. "You have nothing to be worried about," I try to reassure him, but it doesn't seem to work. "You and Annabeth, you're both perfect for popularity. But I'm still me, weird gay emo boy Nico. What if you get accepted...And I don't?" He mumbles. "Well, I'm staying with you no matter what. Count on that, Death Breath," I joke using his nickname. He gives a muffled laugh.

"We should go, but come round mine tomorrow, we can walk to school together and get Annie on the way," I tell him. "Actually, Annie's staying with me. Her parents didn't recognise her with her new look," We both winced. "So she's staying round mine until we can sort something out," Nico finishes, and I nod. "Use protection," I smirk, and he pushes me, glaring. I grin, "Bye Death Breath!"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I noticed half way through writing this I ignored Leo. Do you want me to delete him out or edit him in? Review and tell me. Whichever you guys want the most, I'll change it tomorrow. This is the last chapter for today! But Leo won't be included until I know what you want.**

_Chapter Four – Nico's POV:_

"Let's do this," Percy grins, and Annabeth smirks, as I resist the urge to smile. We're stood near the school, near the gates, and so far nobody has noticed us. Silena is nowhere to be seen, but the bells about to go. I guess we'll be fashionably late, especially since our first lesson is together. "Come on, guys. Let's wait five more minutes," I convince them, until ten minutes later, we're sure that she's not coming.

We stride in, through the empty hallways, and into English. I remember last time I was in this classroom, thinking malicious thoughts of self harming and killing myself. That's all part of the Nico Di'Angelo package, I guess.

We burst through the door, Percy and I stood beside Annabeth. "Why are you here?" The teacher asks, failing at being polite. "This is our class," Annabeth smirks. "I didn't realise that I had new students..." The teacher furrows her eyebrows, and I pipe up, "Oh, we're not new," And so we sit down in our seats. I look around to some gobsmacked faces, and a drooling Piper Mclean, feasting her eyes on Percy. Of course, nobody's looking at me that way, because I'm still just a freak.

_A freak. _

I gulp, maybe this isn't so different as before. I fumble, pinging the rubber band onto my skin. It makes up for not being about to cut in class. It's pain, and that's good enough for me. "Stop it, Neeks," I turn around to see a concerned looking Percy staring at my wrists. I ignore him, and continue. There's nothing he can do about it.

"Who_ are_ you?" The teacher finally comes back to her senses. I can tell that she's debating on whether or not to think of this as a joke. All three of us look at each other, as if to say, 'really?' I roll my eyes, as the others introduce themselves.

"Annabeth Chase,"

"Percy Jackson,"

I smirk, feeling confident all of a sudden, "And Nico Di'Angelo,"

If possible, everyone's mouths drop even further. "But-but you're freaks," There's that word again. I don't know who said it, but luckily, Percy has a comeback. "Love you too, bae!" He imitates the speaker, and everyone laughs. It must have been Rachel, because she's blushing the colour of her hair, and she's not only one not laughing.

"Shut it, Jackson," She glares. "Jackson is hot!" Somebody else says, and more sniggers can be heard throughout the room. "And single," I see Drew wiggling her eyebrows and licking her lips, and I scoff. At least nobody's hitting on me. "So's Di' Angelo, though!" I spoke too soon.

The teacher continues with the lesson, and nobody pays any attention. Notes are passed round, as always, but now they're addressed to us. Somebody I don't even know asked me out – I didn't even know where to send the brutal 'no' back to. So I just passed it back to the person who passed it to me, and hoped it would find its way.

This could turn out bad. Of all of us, I'm so far the least popular. Annabeth and Percy are so much hotter than me...I'd rather hang out with the emo crowd, they seem pretty cool. But if I did that, I'd be ditching my friends, and I don't want to do that. I just think that they're forgetting everything, and they're going to forget me; I'll be left behind.

At least now we don't get bullied.

Class ended, and soon enough it was lunch. A swarm of people surrounded us, and for the first time in forever, we didn't go to our usual hideout, we stayed in the open. I got my phone out and text Annabeth: 'can we give them a show?' She saw it, smirked, and tapped a quick 'sure thing' back. I strut over to her and kissed her passionately. Everything around us went quiet, other than a few disappointed groans. Even Percy looked shocked.

Maybe people will lay off us both for now. For some reason, Percy was blushing and looking down at the ground. Oh...He was probably crushing on Annabeth. I felt bad, so I decided to make up for it. "We're not dating! She's just a friend, and let me tell you, you're facial expressions were PRICELESS," I cracked a smile, "Just a joke, folks." A few people started laughing, and apparently someone took a video. Everyone watched it, and the facial expressions were indeed hilarious.

Percy cheered up a lot, and I mentally made a note to ask him about that crush on her. How have I not noticed before!? Either way, I ship Percabeth. More than I'll ever ship Annico.


End file.
